Introduction:
Without question Smolov is the most in-form member of Russia’s squad this summer after finishing a spectacular season on a personal level as the Russian Premier League’s top goalscorer, but his true arrival on the international scene has been a long time coming. Once touted as a bright young star of Russian football, he made a rare foray into Europe with a loan spell at Feyenoord, but failed to make an impression. In fact until 15 months ago, at the age of 25, he had only completed a full 90 minutes on 20 occassions and scored just five goals in his senior career, and it looked like his prospects would be consigned to the dustbin.
His marriage to the glamorous Viktoria Lopyreva – an official FIFA World Cup 2018 ambassador, TV presenter and former Miss Russia – threatened to become the dominating feature of his life, with him more often seen with his eye-catching blonde partner than scoring on the pitch. A move to the edge of Siberia coincided with the power couple’s separation and a long-awaited breakthrough for Smolov as a player. His loan spell at Ural almost single-handedly dragged the struggling side out of the automatic relegation places, but it wasn’t just his eight goals that were significant; his maturity and determination to prove himself thrust him firmly back into the sporting limelight, and earned him a move to Krasnodar.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Smolov has shown fairly clearly that his finishing is exquisite – check out his overhead finish against Ufa in April this year – as his impressive tally of 20 league goals in 29 matches shows. He is not the most well-built forward but is deceptively tall, and he uses his exceptional positional sense and awareness to unsettle defenders.
At the moment his weaknesses are less apparent, as he has seemingly rid himself of his mental motivation block that was stalling his progress. If anything, the fact that he only played 23 minutes of the qualifying campaign is his main hindrance, as he might be played out wide to accommodate 8-goal top scorer Artem Dzyuba as a target man.
The 2015/16 season:
His season was very much split into two halves, both of which were brilliant for very different reasons. Before the winter break he was deployed out wide as an inside forward, where he used his decent pace and intelligence well to support the main striker, but since the season resumed in March he was played centrally and scored an incredible 14 goals in 11 appearances.
A major factor in his renaissance has been his understanding with international teammate Pavel Mamaev, who directly assisted nine of Smolov’s strikes. Mamaev is on the fringes of the national team starting eleven, and may be picked by Leonid Slutskiy this summer to recreate their partnership alone. Smolov’s blistering form this season has catapulted him to the front of everyone’s conscience – matching it will be quite some feat.
